40 minutes of mass confusion
my hanover youth basketball team got completely handled today by a team that had no real star - they didn't have someone who could shoot the rock like JJ or someone with the inside finesse game of a shelden williams (sorry, duke bias haha). what they did have, though, were seven active players.
seven doesn't sound like too many guys on a basketball team when you see high school teams with upwards of twelve guys suited up on their bench. seven really isn't all that much in hanover youth either, but it seemed like an unfair advantage to my undermanned team of five today.
don't get the wrong idea - my team isn't always without reserves. we have seven usuals that show up most of the time for the game or two each weekend. today, however, we just had enough to field a starting five. the two no-shows had other things that somehow took precedence to our all-important rec basketball game, but that's beyond my comprehension (kidding).
with no subs on the bench to keep the five on the floor upbeat and fresh, my exhausted team crumbled in the middle of the second half. we didn't give up, we just ran out of fuel. our need for those two no-shows was surely apparent today. no, make that three no-shows; our original team had eight guys.
see, we had this guy named brandon. he didn't seem like anything too special during practice and gave me the classic "i'm having such a bad day" excuse when he missed some 3's, but he proved himself as a solid player that knew his role as point guard during games.
it turns out he starts for the lee-davis varisty team. i know, they haven't won a game yet this year, but so what? he starts for a AAA varsity basketball team, which is saying something.
anyways, with brandon handling the point during the first couple games in december, our team was very efficient on offense, and brandon's dribbling ability allowed him to singlehandedly break any press with ease.
a few weeks ago, though, brandon just didn't show up. simply put, the result was disastrous - when there was any ball pressure, our makeshift point guards coughed up the ball in a matter of seconds, which led to many easy layup opportunities for the already-stacked cavaliers. worse still, we had no rhythm or flow on offense; we had lost our leader. our spark. our catalyst.
after receiving a solid whooping at the hands of the cavs, my dad suggested i call brandon and tell him how much he meant to the team, but other things got in the way and distracted me. for the next couple games without him, we began to cope with his absence and got used to a new point guard. then, yesterday, i saw brandon shooting around at lee-davis where our games our held. he wasn't suited up for our game, though; he was wearing L-D apparel.
"hey man"
"hey, how ya been?"
"doin good man, where ya been?"
"the lee-davis coach won't let me play hanover youth anymore cause he's afraid i'll get injured"
i had figured that was the case since i remembered atlee having a similar policy, but i just don't agree with the rule.
first off, why are you going to stop a kid from playing a sport he loves? i could understand a basketball coach demanding that the high school team take precedence over the hanover youth team if a conflict arose over scheduling, but the high school teams don't play on the weekends when HYBL is. i could also agree with a high school coach not letting players play other sports that could result in an injury, but that isn't the case here - brandon just wants to play more basketball.
this coach isn't letting his basketball players play in other recreational basketball games. why? because he's paranoid about a player getting injured. buddy, if anything is apparent from watching a HYBL game, it's that these games are NOT played at the same level of intensity as high school games. the risk is very slim that a player will get injured in this considerably more laidback situation.
even if the risk was there, how can you bring yourself to stop kids from kids voluntarily improving their basketball skills? if they want to play, let them play.
hold on a sec - did anyone else see what happened to the indianapolis colts last week? they got absolutely hammered by a wild card team in their first playoff game, and resting their starters toward the end of the season probably had something to do with it. instead of going for the perfect season, going all-out, going their hardest, the colts played the last three games hesitantly, afraid of injuries despite the impeccable health of their players throughout the season.
starting the season 13-0, the colts finished off their season by losing three out of the last four games, due largely in part to resting their supposedly injury-prone stars. instead of finishing the season with a bang and therefore maintaining the momentum they had built up over thirteen straight weeks of winning, they decided to play it safe at the end, which showed in their embarrassing loss in the playoffs. they couldn't turn the switch back on to play their hardest.
the colts proved that you can't hold back - sometimes risking what you have now will pay off later. don't get me wrong, sometimes it'll backfire, but playing it safe and conservatively will only result in mediocrity.
sometimes you just gotta say, "carpe diem, go for it." we sure could use you brandon.
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on 1.22.2006 at 8:01 PM.
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